Formed after playing a jazz school end of year show, Christchurch alternative/progressive rock band Black Fox Trio has been kicking the year off with a bang.
The gentlemen at the trio’s helm, drummer Chris Close, Talon Adams (bass and backing vocals) and Tim Heeringa (guitar and vocals), were the recipients a NZ On Air Music Making Tracks grant, resulting in their first single and video Giants being released earlier this year”
“I guess it was a boost in terms of people recognising our music, seeing the potential in it,” says Tim.
“It was the first time that we applied. Literally the week before we got the funding we were filming a Pledge Me fundraiser video. So we filmed it and got it all ready to go, and we were just waiting for it to get edited and released, and then we got the funding!”
It couldn’t have come at a better time as the band were about to finish recording their EP at Lyttelton’s Sitting Room studio, under the guidance of Ben Edwards.
“We were finally able to finish it off properly when we got that grant… because, at the time we kind’a were like, ‘How are we going to pay for it?’” laughs Chris.
“Ideally the EP is coming out very soon, once the final mixes get down,” Tim notes.
A solid driving force amongst its members is their love and appreciation for the music. Raised in an artistic family, Tim says that for him it was an internal thing.
“I was always drawn to it.”
“Whether it was art or music, I was going to do something creative and that I loved,”, Talon agrees.
“In some ways, I didn’t want to do anything else,” Chris simply shrugs. “Or, like, I didn’t find anything else interesting”.
The diversity of Black Fox Trio’s sounds is an important aspect, with its roots tapped into the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age’s bluesy rock, Alice In Chains’ crunching grunge riffs, and Led Zeppelin-esque grooves, a change from their previous endeavour Python, an ’80s hair rock band.
“We used to dress up in ’80s get up and stuff!” grins Talon.
Chris agrees it was fun but observes that Tim found it very formulaic in terms of writing.
“But that’s partly where Black Fox stemmed out of. It was just a total creative outlet of doing whatever we wanted to do.”
“Black Fox was like, ‘Whatever we write, we’ll play it,’” Talon adds.
